Dies to Removal

[deck= Zem's RW Burn (L_D tweak)]
Creatures (8)
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Enchantments (2)
2 Chained to the Rocks

Instants (27)
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Searing Blood
3 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix

Lands (23)
2 Boros Guildgate
9 Mountain
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard (15)
2 Blind Obedience
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Spark Trooper
3 Viashino Firstblade
2 Burning Earth
3 Satyr Firedancer[/deck]


OK, so here's my report from FNM. We had 16 players. I was 3-0 (6-0 in games) for first.

Round 1 was VS RW devotion.

Game 1
He won the die roll and led off with a Temple. I led with a mountain. He played an ash zealot, and I shocked it. I decided to shock it, because I (mistakenly) put him on the mirror, because
I heard he was looking for boros charms earlier. Notwithstanding, I don't think it's a terrible choice, since AZ gets in for 2 a turn and Shock only ever does two. Losing the die roll dictated that I was not the beatdown if it was a mirror. I cracked back with a zealot of my own. He played a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and a frostburn weird at which point I know I'm not playing a mirror.I attack for 2 (he doesn't block because I have 5 cards in hand) and on the second main I play a scry land (mountain, bottom). He plays Burning-Tree Emissary into Fanatic of Mogis and domes me for five, then swings in for 1. I Boros Charm him at EoT (I'm at 14, he's at 12). I attack for 2, dropping him to 10, play a land and pass the turn. He casts Stormbreath Dragon and attacks
for 13 (dumping excess mana into FBW). I didn't have quite enough to burn him out (2x magma jet and skull crack in hand) so I decided to jet Fanatic of Mogis and dig. I think that is the more conservative play, since I was going to 1 if I took it all on the chin and missed with my jets. Then again, having access to the top 5 cards is pretty safe. I still chose the more conservative line, but I can see an argument for doming him instead of killing Fanatic. If I had, He would have gone to 6, and I needed to find a 3 damage spell in 5 cards. Either line is would have won, but I prefer the more conservative approach. If I had missed, the second jet could have killed the FBW to give more breathing room. Let me know what you guys think. I found a Lightning strike, so I took the rest on the chin, going to 5. I cast skullcrack, taking him to 7, then untap, attack
(him at 5) then jet + strike him to death. Close game, but that's how these tent to play out.

Sideboard:
IN: 3 Spark Trooper, 3 Satyr Firedancer, 2 Chained to the Rocks, 2 Blind Obedience
OUT: 4 Skullcrack, 4 Ash Zealot, 2 Shock

Game 2

My opponent is on the play and mulls to 6. He keeps a decent 6 (shows me after) with 4 non-land spells, a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and a Temple of Triumph. He leads with the temple, fails to find land, and doesn't find a land until T4. He casts his first spell on T4, but I'm casting Spark Trooper that turn. T5 I cast a second trooper. He's just way too far
behind because he stumbled. I end the game at 28 life.


Round 2 VS GB Homebrew (Corpsejack Evolve?)

Game 1

He kept a very slow hand. I just threw all the burn at his face and ignored his creatures. Phoenix did a lot of work. I only took two damage from a sacred foundry.

Sideboard:
IN: 3 Spark Trooper,2 Chained to the Rocks, 2 Blind Obedience
OUT: 4 Skullcrack, 3 Shock

Game 2
A lot closer. I mulled to 6, and he had (according to him) a good draw. He had T1 Experiment One into T3 Scavenging Ooze,Loleth Troll into T4 Corpsejack Menace into
T5 Kalonial Hydra. I had a [card]Warleader's Helix[/card], two Chained to the Rocks[card][/card] and two Spark Troopers. I gained so much life (was at 29 when his hydra got big) that I was able to outrace the 16/16 Hydra (took 1 hit, then chained it) and the 8/8 Ooze. Chain came at exactly the right time, since I was one point short to just burn him out.


Round 3 VS Esper Control

Game 1

I won the die roll and started off with Ash Zealot into [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. He doombladed the Zealot, but I burned him out. He was never really in this game at any point.

Sideboard:
IN: 3 Spark Trooper,3 Viashino Firstblade,2 [card]Burning Earth[
/card], 1 Blind Obedience
OUT: 4 Searing Blood, 3 Shock,-2 Chained to the Rocks

He got bunched up with scry lands while I curved Zealot > Firstblade > Trooper (fuck yo Jace! Wait... disregard Jace, take 7, I have you at 5). He tapped out for Blood Baron of Vitzkopa and I domed him for lethal.

Thoughts:

I boarded in Satyr Firedancer, but never drew it. I got by just fine without it. Card is likely optional.

Never drew Burning Earth or Blind Obedience.

Viashino Firstblade was SOLID. Sure people might laugh, but to quote one of my first cards: "Don't Laugh, it works". He's this season's Stonewright.

I
was VERY happy with Spark Trooper. No one ever sees it coming and it turns the tide pretty well.

Also, this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXYuPMsThYs

Truth be told, James, my brother reminds me of you: a Vegeta (or Piccolo) type personality that LOVES UB Control. He'll force it sometimes because that's his passion. His favorite card is....wait for it....Nephalia Drownyard. He's my complete opposite as a player - he loves grindy control and making people as miserable as possible. Lol

Damn, that's a report, Keith. Lol Good job, redbro. Make some fucking noise!

Came in 4th in my FNM. R1 vs g/r monsters, won 2-0. R2 vs mono blue, won 2-0. R3 vs esper control, 2-0. R4 vs r/w devotion, won 2-1. R5 vs u/w devotion, won 2-0. R6 chopped to get to top 8. R7 vs Mono red, won 2-1. R8 vs Esper midrange lost 1-2, cant beat 3 resolved barons and ghost daddy. I had blind obedience down and pulled both mortars to deal with barons and still lost it. That was probably the most frustrating loss ever because I drew everything right and they still were able to get it. Oh wellz.

Damn, that's a report, Keith. Lol Good job, redbro. Make some fucking noise!

Iron Maiden is fucking awesome.

Damn, that's a report, Keith. Lol Good job, redbro. Make some fucking noise!

Iron Maiden is fucking awesome.

Damn straight!

Jonny- where do you play? PM if you want. I need to find some new stomping grounds.

Came in 4th in my FNM. R1 vs g/r monsters, won 2-0. R2 vs mono blue, won 2-0. R3 vs esper control, 2-0. R4 vs r/w devotion, won 2-1. R5 vs u/w devotion, won 2-0. R6 chopped to get to top 8. R7 vs Mono red, won 2-1. R8 vs Esper midrange lost 1-2, cant beat 3 resolved barons and ghost daddy. I had blind obedience down and pulled both mortars to deal with barons and still lost it. That was probably the most frustrating loss ever because I drew everything right and they still were able to get it. Oh wellz.

Jesus Christ, how long does FNM take? 8 hours?

Play at Armada games in Tampa. @Dolt, there were like 45ish people tonight so it was 6 rounds cut to top 8.

In Florida, at the bigger stores, we can easily do 6 rounds with a top 8. I'm not kidding.

Every store I've played at started doing that. Except that some store owners get complacent and will do a 4-6 round cut to standings tournament. Which is where some of my stores are at. It's good when I have work early. Otherwise, I'd like to make a night of it.

Jon - I love Armada. I go there for Legacy sometimes. I've never done FNM there, though. I will next week. You gonna be there?

If you play standard on weds at Armada its just 4 rounds packs based on record. FNM they do more rounds generally, depending on attendance of course. @khaos I'll work around your schedule, I can go whatever night works for you. My wife knows I have to go at least once a week =D lol.

When do you get started + how long does it take? When do you start, when do you finish? I'm never been to a more than 4 round FNM in any country, or one with a top 8.

I was done at 10:30, but I didn't play the final round since I was 4th. Get started at 7. The rounds usually go pretty quick -- our meta has very little control.

Keith, I've played long FNMs that went to 2 am and I've also done Top 8's that ended around 11. Just depends on the meta. All FNMs start at 7 in the Tampa Bay Area. The shortest one I ever went to was a 3 round tourney that I won and it was over by 9:15. .

Blood Baron is actually awful against this deck; he's only relevant if they've already depleted all your resources or they're casting it with counter backup. In either of those positions, likely anything they play wins anyway.

At the GP I had my opponent forced to do a desperate -2 Jace split (Jace would die to either my Ash Zealot, Viashino or Mutvault) revealing: Blood Baron x 2, Temple of Silence. I split the two Blood Baron together and the Temple. My opponent tanked for 4-5 mins and took (correctly) the Temple. Killed him anyway, but it was funny.

I mean a turn 5 or 6 baron is rough bc we generally dont have a lot of cards in hand at that point -- if they aren't an answer for him then we just die to them gaining a ton of life. For me today, I drew 2 good answers, and then he dropped the 3rd and I couldn't outrace him. I mean the dream is they block ashy and we searing blood them, but that cant always happen.

We start at 7 and even with three timed rounds end up going to 11.

3-1 a DE (losing to MBC in round 3 when my opponent drew running Devour Flesh for his own Desecration Demon into Desecration Demon + Desecration Demon). Deck is awesome.

It's usually 45 minute rounds where I play. One time, at the start of the Caw Blade era, we had 4-5 matches go into time and after 30 minutes into the "5-turn" clock, the owner yelled, "Would you motherfuckers learn how to play fucking control!? "

James, maybe that MBC could teach you how to do that?

He had to play perfect to make it to that position, so good luck for him. They were three really difficult, challenging games and I enjoyed the experience. I don't really care, i've killed a lot of people with topdecked burn spells or even the pro, "three lands in play, upkeep magma jet, scry 2 to the bottom, draw untapped land, kill you", so you know, good players deserve to get lucky sometimes. I was his only game loss in the event too.

4-0 (8-1) to win my FNM this week with a modified version of what I posted above. I beat UW Control, BW Enchantments (My only game loss. Still no clue how to stop Whip/Obzedat/GodsWilling.), RDW (Thank you, Spark Trooper), and UWR Control.

You don't beat Whip plus Obzedat, you shrug and move on.

But well done!

I have trouble when either one is out although I do think that BlOb will help in that regard. The real problem has been all those "give my creature protection from your deck so you waste your spells/creatures" that those decks run that stop me from building momentum. Those players are often at the bottom of the standing but I keep getting paired with one of the two people playing it in the first few rounds.

How about 24 land, -1 shock. Probably adding back the 3rd guildgate (for an 11th white source). That hurts aggro matchups in theory, but hitting your 4th land drop in a timely fashion might even be more valuable. It also makes 1 land keeps on the draw a bit better, and makes Mutavault better too. The deck is so mana hungry than it sounds very appealing to me (though I have a long history of running 1 more land than is necessary, so hep me come back to reality if necessary).

I played with a 3rd Gate tonight. I liked it.

And this is coming from the guy who hasn't splashed a second color in Standard since Dos Rakis due to tempo gripes.

And here I cringed when I put in the 23rd but the extra 4-drops in the sideboard and BlOb demand it. I tend to be on the flood side of things fairly often. At least the 23rd was a Mutavault so I have something to do with the mana.

If we go to 24-25, were in stormbreath country, and that changes the deck dramatically. I don't really find I have trouble getting to 4 mana consistently. Do you have trouble often enough that its causing your problems?

I feel that I either get screwed or flooded. And this is at 23 land! Fortunately, this is the best I've ever felt playing with Magma Jet and Temples. Scry is really powerful. After 4 lands, I Scry every land I see away. It's the way Purphoros meant for the deck to be played.

You couldn't pay me to play Mouthbreather Dragon right now in this deck. I wanna go fast!

24 land with 4 Mutavault, 4 Scrylands and 4 Magma Jet isn't the worst. Post board we have a bunch of mana sinks too. I'll give it a try.

Let us know. I'll try to contribute, but right now I'm busy with my life transition and need to lean on you guys a little. I'll play whatever you tell me to.

Hell, oldschool Hellrider Red ran 4-7 4-drops on 23 land, even curving up to Conscripts or Thundermaw from the board at times. If that deck could handle that many drops at 23 land, then our deck with just 4 4-drops main and 2-3 sideboard 4-drops can handle it too, methinks.

It took James about a year to change my view on adding more land, despite hindsight telling me that it was mathematically correct too. I believe that 23 is the sweet spot.

I'm not actively trying to be resistant to change. I just think 23 is correct.

I usually play 1 more land than everyone else, this isn't something new. I feel that the deck handles flood a lot better than screw, so my inclination is to run more; 23 is probably already 1 more than most people would run (4x 4-drops on 22 land is pretty standard), so I can live with it as it is.

3-1 at FNM for 3rd, small turnout this week. Wins against W/b Humans (2-1, mull to 5 on the loss), Jund Monsters (2-0) and R/w Devotion (2-1), losing to faster racing draws from a homebrew someone brought that basically plays burn, and curves out 2-3-4-5 Ash Zealot, Chandra's Phoenix, Flame Wreathed Phoenix then Stormbreath. So there's that. Also played some practice games against Uw Devotion.

To my surprise when I showed up at the store I noticed someone playing some practice games, with Spark Troopers and burn... Turns out he lurks on here, so hey guy, sorry I forgot to ask for your name but join in on the conversation man! He's been trying some tweaks and likes Spark Troopers main board without Ash Zealot. He also mentioned having issues with Mutavault draws and cut two, however I personally haven't had an issue so far. That CFB Pre-Melbourne article Zem did was gone Magic viral it seems.


Not much control
recently, I may change up my sideboard for the store specifically. However, most of my testing is for the upcoming Canadian Magic Tour tournament so I'll need to have a set sideboard soon enough.

I think I'll be moving into the Zem approved sideboard. Lots of people have been posting feeling torn between the power and efficiency you get from Firedancer Satyr, but ultimately feel it's better left out of the 75. I certainly find myself very conflicted about having two in hand, as it means any small burn spell can deal with nearly any creature threat, yet double Satyr is already such a hit on tempo and is awkward to play out at times. Never drew it against Jund today, but it did a lot of work against Uw Devotion (as expected). However, it might just be true that cards like Mizzium Mortars (or Fated Conflagration which I wanted to try, despite the atrociously expensive cost), Burning Earth or more Spark Troopers/Viashinos is just more viable against more match-ups than Firedancer. I'll take a look at my win-rates with and without in the next couple days.

24 land with 4 Mutavault, 4 Scrylands and 4 Magma Jet isn't the worst. Post board we have a bunch of mana sinks too. I'll give it a try.

Running 24 land would make Spark Trooper more consistent, either out of the board or even main. James, how would you feel about going to 24 and then adding either 2 Spark Trooper or 2 SBD main, possibly dropping Shock altogether?

I feel Spark Trooper has characteristics of a good MB card, as even when they have removal you can usually sneak them in. It's just that (as others said before) it competes for the 4-drop slot with Helix which is even more versatile.